Allie Loiselle
Jay Fogleman
102H Most of my high school career was spent brooding over silly, trivial projects like dioramas and poster boards. I constantly questioned exactly what we were supposed to learn from taping pieces of paper with a few sentences (generally copy and pasted) to a board with pretty pictures. I felt like my education was in reverse, and found that I did not have the will power to do work that meant absolutely nothing to me. It wasn’t until my junior year that I decided to take physics, and realized the potential that I had when I actually felt passionate about learning.
It’s strange to look back now at the classes I hated the most freshman and sophomore year; biology and chemistry. So it must seem surprising that I am now majoring in a science. For some reason the first day I entered Mr. Marrese’s class, room 505 I became amazed and enthralled by physics. For the first time that I can remember in my school career, I looked forward to a class and to the work I would have to complete. I owe the decisions I’ve made for my life in the future to the two years I spent in class learning with Mr. Marrese, a graduate from URI.
I learned the fundamental formulas of physics and their applications, but I also learned different qualities about myself. For one project we had to build a tower out of simply popsicle sticks and hot glue. The tower had specific dimension requirements and a minimum wait that it had to hold suspended from the top center. It seemed impossible. So we began to build, and as our tower grew, so did our fear that it would never hold the correct amount of weight. We took apart and rebuilt, and took apart and rebuilt, until finally we were content with our product. When the day of the testing came our tower held 45 text books (the most in the class by about 10) and we only stopped there because the wire broke. After taking the tower home, two of my friends tied a rope to the top and hung from the inside, so it was not until 300 pounds were suspended from the tower that it even budged.
Completing that project and many others like it made me realize what I can do when I put my whole mind and heart into something. I know now that if I had tried to feel that way about all of my other classes, I would have gotten so much more out of my high school. But I know myself, and unfortunately I have never been capable of faking enthusiasm. If I am not interested, I will simply “play the game.” I believe that every person should be able to wake up in the morning and go to a job that they feel is important and that they can get excited about. It may sound strange to some, but I get excited about physics, and I can’t wait to pass that passion on to my students.
Jay Fogleman
102H
Most of my high school career was spent brooding over silly, trivial projects like dioramas and poster boards. I constantly questioned exactly what we were supposed to learn from taping pieces of paper with a few sentences (generally copy and pasted) to a board with pretty pictures. I felt like my education was in reverse, and found that I did not have the will power to do work that meant absolutely nothing to me. It wasn’t until my junior year that I decided to take physics, and realized the potential that I had when I actually felt passionate about learning.
It’s strange to look back now at the classes I hated the most freshman and sophomore year; biology and chemistry. So it must seem surprising that I am now majoring in a science. For some reason the first day I entered Mr. Marrese’s class, room 505 I became amazed and enthralled by physics. For the first time that I can remember in my school career, I looked forward to a class and to the work I would have to complete. I owe the decisions I’ve made for my life in the future to the two years I spent in class learning with Mr. Marrese, a graduate from URI.
I learned the fundamental formulas of physics and their applications, but I also learned different qualities about myself. For one project we had to build a tower out of simply popsicle sticks and hot glue. The tower had specific dimension requirements and a minimum wait that it had to hold suspended from the top center. It seemed impossible. So we began to build, and as our tower grew, so did our fear that it would never hold the correct amount of weight. We took apart and rebuilt, and took apart and rebuilt, until finally we were content with our product. When the day of the testing came our tower held 45 text books (the most in the class by about 10) and we only stopped there because the wire broke. After taking the tower home, two of my friends tied a rope to the top and hung from the inside, so it was not until 300 pounds were suspended from the tower that it even budged.
Completing that project and many others like it made me realize what I can do when I put my whole mind and heart into something. I know now that if I had tried to feel that way about all of my other classes, I would have gotten so much more out of my high school. But I know myself, and unfortunately I have never been capable of faking enthusiasm. If I am not interested, I will simply “play the game.” I believe that every person should be able to wake up in the morning and go to a job that they feel is important and that they can get excited about. It may sound strange to some, but I get excited about physics, and I can’t wait to pass that passion on to my students.